CD Reviews

A real neat time is guaranteed for all

Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 02/22/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Big Daddy made of name for themselves playing contemporary songs in the style of pre-Beatles rock and roll. Well, in this case they don't reinterpret recent songs. Instead, they reach all the way back to 1967 and remake the Beatles entire Sgt. Pepper's album. This is amusing stuff, with the songs being performed in the styles of different stars of yesteryear. For instance, the title song(s) is played in the style of the Coasters, "With a Little Help From My Friends" is played in the manner of Johnny Mathis, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is performed like Jerry Lee Lewis and so on. My personal favorites are "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" in the style of Freddie Cannon and "A Day in the Life" a la Buddy Holly. I would recommend this CD to any Beatles fan with a good sense of humor."

A Hard Discs Find

Diamond Dave | Chicago, Home of the Blues | 01/31/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one hard disc to track down (I own the cassette). If you are lucky enough to stumble across it in your travels, and you like the Beatles, oldies, parody CDs or comedy on disc, this is a must have. In my mind Big Daddy did some of the most spot-on spoofs of contemporary hits done in an early rock 'n roll style.

The idea here is to match up Johnny Mathis' voice with Beatles classics off Sgt. Pepper album. In this case, "A Little Help From My Friends" to the tune of "Chances Are". It works. Or "The Dominoes chestnut "60 Minute Man" done to the beat of "When I'm 64" is a perfect knock off. The CD ends, pitting the famous 'Day the Music Died' (Buddy Holly, Big Bopper) plane crash, over "A Day in the Life", and it is also very well concieved. There are a coupel of mis-steps here; the beat poet "Within WIthout" (not a Beatle classic to begin with) falls flat. Points for trying though. More successful is when Daddy goes uptempo with a Dion &d the Belmonts styled "Fixing a Hole", a-la "The Wonderer". All in all a splendid time is guarented by all. Go Big Daddy, Go!"

Sgt. Pepper as originally envisioned in 1959

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 01/03/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Big Daddy is a retro doo-wop group that first appeared in 1983 with their debut What Really Happened to the Band of '59. The band's fictional backstory involved an aborted USO tour of Vietnam that resulted in their being held captive through the `60s and `70s. Given only sheet music to work from, they spent the years applying their `50s stylings to contemporary songs. Their debut featured `70s and `80s hits cleverly reworked in the style of well-known 1950s acts. Barry Manilow's "I Wrote the Songs" was taken up-tempo in tribute to Danny and the Juniors' "At the Hop," Rick James' "Super Freak" was given an Everly Brothers harmony treatment, The Cars' "Just What I Needed" is mellowed with the sound of the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me," and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" is sung as a cappella street corner doo-wop. The new arrangements were impressive in their own right, but the group's musical talents made the results both terrific novelties and surprisingly listenable music.

Additional albums in 1985 (Meanwhile... Back in the States) and 1991 (Cutting Their Own Groove) extended the joke by mashing up Bruce Springsteen with Pat Boone, the Talking Heads with Harry Belafonte, Dire Straits with Tennessee Ernie Ford, and A Taste of Honey (or Kyu Sakamoto, originally) with the Beach Boys. As on their debut, the depth of the group's imagination and the quality of their musicianship merited listening past the novelty. In 1992 the band waxed their final album, a tour de force recreation of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as if it had been waxed in the late `50s. In place of the fab four's psychedelia you get the title tune as it would have been rendered by the Coasters, "With a Little Help From My Friends" as crooned by Johnny Mathis, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" as a Jerry Lee Lewis barn burner, "Lovely Rita" given the Bo Diddley beat of Elvis' "His Latest Flame," and a Freddy Canon-styled, sound effects-filled take on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."